Creative musings in bright colors

Posts tagged ‘subtle’

This mani is halfway between winter and spring: winter colors but with flowers and a butterfly! Given how cold (and snowy) it continues to be, I thought that was fitting.

This is a new-to-me polish, and I love it. For some reason I am super into shimmers right now, and this is subtle, elegant, and loaded with shimmer! What you see here is three thin coats of Quixotic Polish – It Rubbed Off From Friction. This polish is one of my only purchases from Hella Handmade Creations (I usually stick to Polish Pickup). The polish is is a beautiful dark grey-mauve swimming with pink shimmer, which also has a scattering of holo glitter. That said, while I love the color of the polish, it was a little thick and hard to work with.

I then made some stamping decals/advanced stamping (aka coloring the stamp in while it is on the stamper) using silver and purple. The color combo could have been a bit better, but it wasn’t terrible. I rather wish I had used black not silver! Or maybe simply white.

Copycat Claws posted a blue-and-white moroccan tile design that I love and want to copy… but while I am in the hospital I should probably avoid bright blue nails! At least as I started out. So I decided that if I couldn’t do blue, I could at least try nude! (To be fair I pained these back in July, before I realized no one would care much about my nails). That said, these came out well if I do say so myself!

I used four nude-toned polishes and two shimmery toppers to make this. Since I only have one clear stamper that works well, I had to do each nail individually. It wasn’t DIFFICULT but I did take a long time!

I’ll meet o keep in mind that I have to try this in blue at a later point! I do admit though, it isn’t very harvest-y, and unfortunately I have to admit I didn;t have time to put together a real Thanksgiving mani! But the rest of this week is at least fall-themed :-p. Hope you enjoyed!

Rose AND copper AND gold (oh my)! Between the nude and the shimmery metallic-tones of Frohe Feiertage I didn’t know what to call this mani at all. I love how the nail art looks, a bit tone-on-tone and a lot glittery, but naming it was a challenge!

If I’m being honest, there isn’t much to say about this manicure, other than ‘ooooh shiny’ because its mostly just a stamp over a sparkly base. Sometimes, however, that just works!

I should probably start writing down some of the tone-on-tone color combos that I like; it isn’t something that I would reach for if left to my own devices, but it works great in the hospital! However, it does fail pretty regularly (and then I have to restart my whole manicure, which is time-consuming).

This might be neutral and nude-toned, but it is at least moderately interesting! However, it was a challenge to put together.

I have to say that while I love the designs on this plate, the version of the plate that I was sent is very poorly etched! I managed to get the designs to pick up but it took a lot of finagling. Also, one of the reasons I wanted this plate so badly was the two-step stamping flowers, and with plates that are not deeply etched there is no hope of getting large areas of solid color (and even if you could you would need 2-3 coats of the stamp to be opaque) so the primary reason I wanted this plate doesn’t work. That said, the designs are pretty and I can hope it is only the copy I got!

This mani ended up boring and almost ugly. I like the base polish a lot but every time I try to come up with some color to use over it, I turn to dark purple-grey or gold! And for some reason most of the designs end up wonky looking.

I don’t know why I picked this stamp (which seems to be a trend this week) but it ended up looking like rungs on a ladder or maybe the straps on a fancy jacket? If fancy jackets came in murky purple tones? I don’t know!

Anyway, leaving all this aside, the 31 Day Challenge starts this weekend! I am not going to be participating every day because I don’t have enough manis backlogged and I certainly don’t have enough time to paint and edit that much, but I am going to keep to posting three times a week and matching my nails of the day to that days prompt! I think there will be a few where I jump a day forward or backwards, but I should have most of them sorted out. I love seeing what everyone puts together for the #31DC2018!

I will never give up on nail art! Even if it becomes increasingly harder to manage due to time and responsibilities. Anyway. When I started residency I knew I needed nails that were subtle and pale pink and all that appropriate stuff, but also fancy and fun enough that I wouldn’t be disappointed in myself. Voila!

So yes, this is the nail art I had on for my first few days of residency. TECHNICALLY I think we are not supposed to have any type of design on our nails? But I don’t remember exactly the rules and its not like I’d ever paint something disrespectful so, we shall see. Hopefully no one gets angry about painted nails!

This is it, the final boring mani that I wore to interviews! Although if I am being honest, this one is not all that boring. It is also February which means I am permitted to start posting hearts (not that I have any other pink manis prepared…I spent the last few weeks wearing subtle pink and so I have been avoiding the color altogether. Can I make a blue Valentine’s mani???). Anyway, have some shimmer and some hearts!

I knew what I wanted to do with this mani, and trialled three different grey/grey combos before settling on this one. I am a little sad because the hearts take up so much space you can barely see the base! This only matters because the base is Crystal Crown, which I have just now realized was discontinued at some point in the past. This is awful because it is easily my most-used grey, and the bottle is half empty! Ooops. I need to keep a better eye on when indie polishes discontinue my favorites!

But anyway, this was basically advanced stamping with grey and white over grey. It looks rather nice for all that, and was suitably almost-subtle and heart-shaped!

Happy Friday! And this ends the run of boring manis. Now all I need to do is actually pick where I want to be next year (and for the next 10 or so years, yikes!) and get started on some actual Valentine’s manis!

The stamp I used here is a bit odd. It is mostly swirls and twirls, but also has stars and for some reason a pine tree? Either way, I seemed like something fun to use in the wintertime…and even more fun to randomly cover with golden shimmery glitter!

Basically, this is another ‘stamp with white over nude and add GLITTER’ which, in addition to swirly designs, seems to be my MO when I need something somewhat subtle but still fun. I also just quietly enjoy the subtle shimmer in the nude base.

I feel the need to give a little shout-out to this particular stamping plate, I don’t use it often because I own so many darn stamps…but it is super deeply etched and always transfers beautifully. I should move it to the front of my image plates, not the back!

So close to finished with these boring interview nails! Today’s is the only set that I ended up using yellow for. Usually I dislike yellow, but I wanted to use this specific polish because it was just…sitting there. Lonely. So I did! It may have ended up a bit…very glittery, but yet again no one commented so I think I’m ok 🙂

I spent a bit longer than I should have trying to pick which stamp to use, but I settled on this odd encased circles design. I don’t think I’ve ever used this particular stamp before! It is a bit boring, but overall pretty.

Please ignore the fact that the bottle shot of the polish has a smear of the polish on it. I honestly don’t even notice anymore until I go to take photos and then suddenly whoops there is a dirty bottle!

Continuing with the theme of subtle, snowy, and swirled, we have this post! By this point in the interview season I was giving up on the very bland manis that I sported in the beginning, and was firmly in the realm of mints and golds and a bit more contrast.

That said, I still deemed this subtle enough to wear! It is another of my favorites, and it helped that during this particular interview it definitely snowed! It is always fun when my nail art predicts the weather :-p

I do need to get some more snowflake stamps, on the off chance that I have time to do nail art next winter (this whole residency thing is becoming far more real, I need to put together my actual list and cross my fingers!), since most of the plates I have don’t stamp well!

This is a bit dark for an interview mani, but I don’t care! I wanted to create something using copper shimmer so here we go. Completely by accident, two of the polishes that I picked out had names about magic! So I chose an appropriate title :-p

This ended up being another of my favorite designs from the work-appropriate theme I had to use for interviews, but I think that was mostly because I knew I was breaking a few unofficial rules by using darker shades! Also, secret color-shifting shimmer.

I think there is a pattern in all of this: when in doubt, I will use swirly stamps for interviews. I have a hunch that when I finally get the rest of the art edited this will really play true…I finally had my very last interview last week (YAY!!!) so I can finally start putting color back on my nails, but you guys won’t see them for a few weeks yet!

I spent a few weeks feeling angry at myself for buying The Magician from ILNP since I rarely use toppers, but I actually really like this one, and I think I should get some good use out of it. Hope you enjoyed!

This mani was done super last minute because I had forgotten that I had an interview the next day (I never forget about flights, but if its only a bus ride away…well, that can be a problem). I mostly wanted something fast!

I don’t know that I love the combo of a frosty shimmer with a metallic polish, I think a creme stamp might have worked better. I do love this stamp though, it is pretty much my go-to when I need something fast, swirly, and pretty!

The colors here are Freshwater Pearl by ULTA for the pink base, and Penny Talk for the rose gold stamp. The stamp itself is from Bundle Monster plate 314.

Of course, there was also no sun while I wore this, so you only get to see indoor lighting, sorry!

I promise that the designs going up next week are a tad more colorful! Happy Friday!

New polish! Even if it is in the nude range, I still like it. I have also bought a bunch of shimmery glittery polishes recently, that I am going to pretend I will be able to wear next year. The hospital is hiring me to work, not to have tame nails, right?

This was also fun because I completely forgot that I owned this stamp, somehow. I don’t know that taupe-with-silver are really peacock colors, but I like it anyway! Mostly because glitter makes everything better.

What you see here are three thin coats of Caught on Tape by KBShimmer, but I very easily could have done two if I made the coats just a hair thicker! The polish is a very pretty purple-grey leaning pale pink nude. That is quite a description…but I will hopefully have comparisons to some other nude/neutrals up in the next month or so, so you can see what I mean!

The glittery polish in this design (Rosewater) is probably the polish I most want to use as soon as I can use colors again…it is just so darn shimmery!!

I wanted to be ever-so-slightly daring with this particular mani, and used a pale grey/mint polish instead of pink or nude! It didn’t matter, no one commented on it during the interview :-p

This is probably one of my favorite designs among the work appropriate set that I’ve had to do these past few months. I really just love this base color, and I adore the tone-on-tone stamping with gold highlights. I think this is the third time I’ve done something with this color set (most of the rest were on clinical rotations around a year ago). Go figure!

I am curious, what do you guys think about more adventurous colors for work, but with tone-on-tone for the design? Like a darker grey or a brown shimmer rather than something pastel in the pink range? The ‘art’ would be subtle but I don’t know that it isn’t the color that matters more.

Of all the designs I did during my residency interviews, this is probably the most subtle. I figured if I was going to wear a pink that was blatantly glittery, then I needed a design which would not stand out!

I used a pink glittery base that claims to be holographic and almost is, and then stamped over it with a scale pattern using a gradient of light pink to normal pink. I almost wish I had used white and not light pink, this design was almost invisible!

I think this is also the only time I didn’t just cut both my hands back when one nail broke…which is why I have one hand with nice square nails and one hand that is rounded. I dislike rounded nails!!

This was work-appropriate mani #2, out of maybe 10? I have two interviews left at this point so probably out of 11 total manis. We shall see. I hope these are giving those of you with jobs that require boring nails some ideas! :-p

Today begins a series of interview (aka work-appropriate) manis! Basically, when I went to residency interviews, I had to paint my nails in such a way that if anyone looked (or asked to see) they had a cool design, and if people were not paying attention, they just looked like a solid color.

This all came about because I listed “nail art” as one of my hobbies on my residency application. I can’t really regret this move, since it both allowed me to actually paint and subtly design my nails during the interviews, and because it occasionally came up in conversation! I even found one fellow application who had previously done nail art (and we talked about stamping plates).

The design you see here is what I wore to my first interview (read: before I broke any nails flying. I always break at least one nail whenever I fly and I don’t understand WHY but my nail shape will start to get wonky after this one). I wanted something subtle but fun!

This is basically just Cherish by Picture Polish (nude with subtle holo) stamped with plate BP-L049 using Penny Talk by Essie (rose gold metallic). The residents at dinner noticed it and were impressed (or confused, in the case of the men). None of the interviewers asked!

Hope you enjoyed! Since I had to go to so darn many interviews (why does neurology have a separate internal medicine year? I don’t know), I have decided to do a work-friendly month of manis. Which is to say the next 3 weeks are going to be nothing but boring nude work-appropriate nails. :-p

This ended up looking like a pretty pattern with a patina over it! Like, copper underneath (hence the flecks of gold) and then rusted. I don’t know, maybe thats too poetic?

Although this was painted for and worn to the hospital, I think it is pretty enough (and not pink!) to count as just a regular mani. Despite how subtle it is, I actually really like it! For once, adding dots was actually the right move :-p

I need to remember to use the random full-design square plates I have more often when I am low on time, enjoy the randomness of the pattern that ends up on my nails.

I also need to keep reminding myself that pastel of just about any color should be acceptable in the hospital, no need to limit myself to pink! Or purple. Mint is a current favorite nail color of mine so I’ll keep trying to work it in 😀

A somewhat simple mani (made by smushing colors on with saran wrap), and then some striping tape! It ended up looking far more elegant than I intended it to 🙂

The base here is a pale grey creme called Dove, by Zoya. I’ve been in the market for a light grey for a while, since my last one ran out….around 2 years ago. Whoops. Dove covered perfectly in two thin coats, and reminded me why I love buying cremes from Zoya! This isn’t a shocking color, but it is pretty. Not that many brands have a grey creme in stock at all times, so I’m glad Zoya does!

The art itself was my (successful?) attempt to make my nails look like marbled granite. I know most people start with a white base (and if I ever do this again, I am likely to as well) when they try to create a white/grey/silver granite look but I wanted to see what it looked like all grey! And I needed to use Dove in a way that would look cool but be subtle enough for work.

I actually took a whole bunch of photos before adding the striping tape, because I wasn’t sure if I would like it. I really did though, so there are no photos here of the silver-less manicure!

Remember how the day before Valentine’s Day I said I had this awesome new nude polish? And then I used that polish as my base for the Valentine’s Dotticure without showing you swatches? Well, here are the swatches!

This is three thin coats of Cherish by Picture Polish. Since I am stuck wearing boring colors in the hospital, I figured it was time to amass a collection of nudes and semi-nudes that are moderately interesting and do not require 23482934 coats to be opaque. This definitely fits the bill!

Cherish is a slightly grey nude with copious holo shards scattered in it. It is quite flattering! The holo certainly catches the light, but it isn’t strong enough to be distracting. It also dried quite nicely 🙂

I stamped over Cherish with Penny Talk by Essie, using a Born Pretty stamping plate. I cannot claim credit for this idea…my sister asked me to use this specific stamp on her nails a while back (hers were blue-on-blue) and I liked how it came out so I decided to use the pattern!

So what do you think, tone-on-tone but still pretty? The best part was that the pattern almost disappeared in indirect lighting, and jumped out in sunlight.